{"id":12909,"date":"2025-09-02T23:33:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T03:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12909"},"modified":"2025-09-02T23:33:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T03:33:59","slug":"mom-and-dad-save-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/09\/02\/mom-and-dad-save-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom and Dad Save the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong> (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some language and comic violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Greg Beeman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 24, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz, Dwier Brown, Kathy Ireland, Thalmus Rasulala, Wallace Shawn, Eric Idle, Suzanne Ventulett, Michael Stoyanov, Danny Cooksey, Jeff Doucette, Jonathan Stark, Dan Stanton, Don Stanton, Bergen Williams, Brent Hinkley, Tony Cox, Ed Gale, Debbie Carrington.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I used to hate the sci-fi comedy Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong>. I saw it at the cinema and nearly walked out. I didn\u2019t find it the least bit funny. It made my \u201cWorst of\u201d list that year. I recorded it off cable a few years later (1999 to be exact) and taped over it after a second viewing failed to change my opinion. I swore I\u2019d never bother with it again. I managed to keep that vow for more than a quarter-century.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t know what came over me tonight, but I decided to take another look at Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong>. I had nothing better to do anyway. This time, I enjoyed it. I laughed at it more than I ever did in the past. Isn\u2019t it funny how opinions can change over time?<\/p>\n

\u00a0EUREKA! I discovered that the key to enjoying Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong> is to realize it\u2019s not so much funny as it is silly. The idea of a suburban couple being transported to a faraway planet in a station wagon only to find themselves compelled to save their home planet from total annihilation by a dimwitted madman ruler is pure goofiness. It\u2019s like one of those cheap, cheesy sci-fi movies that typically showed on UHF channels on the late show way back when but infused with laughing gas. With this realization, I was finally able to surrender myself to the supreme silliness of it all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Teri Garr (Young Frankenstein) and Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off) play the Nelsons, Marge and Dick. They\u2019re in something of a rut with their marriage. She has a sense of adventure and likes to try new things. He doesn\u2019t. He\u2019s always complaining about his back or sensitive tummy. He\u2019s the kind of guy who pulls his car out of the garage to pick up the newspaper at the end of his driveway. To celebrate their 20th<\/sup> anniversary, they decide to take a weekend trip to Santa Barbara. En route, they get detoured way, WAY off course.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On a distant planet named for its tyrannical ruler, Tod Spengo (Lovitz, SNL) plans to destroy Earth with his \u201cSuper Death Ray Laser\u201d. It bears mentioning that everybody on planet Tod is an idiot including and especially Tod. He temporarily halts destruction when he gets an eyeful of Marge through a telescope. He\u2019s immediately attracted to her and intends to make her his wife. He uses a \u201cMagnobeam\u201d to bring her to him. Dick is basically along for the ride. When the couple arrives in their station wagon, he throws Dick in the dungeon and lets Marge know she\u2019s going to marry him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the dungeon, Dick encounters the rightful king of Tod, Raff (Idle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail). He clues the clueless earthling in on what\u2019s happening. He tells Dick to escape and track down his son Sirk (Brown, Field of Dreams) and daughter Semage (Ireland, Necessary Roughness) living in exile in the desert. When he does, they elect him to lead the rebellion against Tod. Only he can save Marge and only they can save Earth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s possible I was in a better head space than the previous two times I watched Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong>. I\u2019d even say it\u2019s likely. Either way, I sat there on my couch giggling at the stupidity of the story and characters. I especially got a kick out of Lovitz who totally steals the show as King Tod, a moron who constantly needs his ego stoked by his second-in-command General Afir played by the late Thalmus Rasulala (Blacula) to whom the movie is dedicated (he died in October \u201991).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lovitz actually gave up his SNL gig because of this movie. Filming, which took place in summer \u201990, ran over schedule. SNL producer Lorne Michaels told him he couldn\u2019t miss any time on the show. He quit so he could finish working on the film. Now that\u2019s what I call dedication to one\u2019s craft. Too bad it was the wrong choice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong> absolutely bombed at the box office. It made less than $1M in its opening weekend. Everybody saw that coming. It took a while (almost two years) for it to make it to cinemas. Warner kept delaying its release. They didn\u2019t screen it in advance for critics or audiences. They just dumped it into theaters knowing full well it wouldn\u2019t make it too far from the starting gate in the summer box office race. Lovitz thought it would be the one to make him a movie star. Yeah, that never happened. Warner pulled it after two weeks and hoped the public would just forget about it. Most have, but I\u2019m not an ordinary member of public. I never forgot it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Greg Beeman (License to Drive) and written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon (the Bill & Ted movies), Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong> is fun if you look at it the right way. Take the special effects. I love the use of miniatures. The alien creatures are obviously little people in cheap costumes or puppets as is the case with the killer mushrooms. This is how they used to do it, kiddies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s now address the elephant in the room. We all know about Jeffrey Jones and what he did to get cancelled. It\u2019s bad, but I\u2019m not going to let his reprehensible acts deter me from enjoying the movies he\u2019s been in. He does okay as the dull husband\/dad. Garr is just as fun as the upbeat suburban housewife who insists on bringing her own coffee maker on a weekend trip (hey, who knew?). Kathy Ireland looks sexy as the scantily-clad alien princess. Idle has some good scenes as the rightful king. It\u2019s always fun to see the Stanton twins (Good Morning Vietnam, Gremlins 2 and Terminator 2) show up in a film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In thinking about it, I probably would have liked Mom and Dad Save the World<\/strong> as a young teen. I can see it as one of those movies I\u2019d watch multiple times on HBO. I was 24 when it came out so I didn\u2019t make that youthful connection with it. I didn\u2019t get it then, but I do now. It\u2019s just a silly, stupid movie best watched with the brain in OFF mode.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some language and comic violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Greg Beeman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 24, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz, Dwier Brown, Kathy Ireland, Thalmus Rasulala, Wallace Shawn, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mom-and-Dad-Save-the-World-.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12922,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12909\/revisions\/12922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}